[Spoiler Alert] Impressions of 'Detective Conan: The Afterimage of the One-Eyed'

Thank you for another year, Detective Conan!!!!!!!!
I'm so glad to be alive!!!

Every single year, the moment I hear the opening line, "There is always only one truth!", tears well up in my eyes.The joy and gratitude of "I got to see this again this year!!!"
Gratitude to myself for surviving another year, and gratitude to the production team for providing us with this work again this year.It's wonderful to be able to see Conan in theaters every year!!!!!

This time it's a super-cool, profound mystery! Following the year before last and last year, there are quite a lot of characters appearing. So, I'm writing these impressions while organizing my thoughts by looking at the novelization by Shima Mizuki.
I've only seen the movie once so far, so there might be some points that are wrong here and there! (Please let me know if you notice any!)

■ About the main story

□ Sakurai's style explodes! A super-cool, profound mystery where "adults take center stage"!

A major incident that shakes the nation. A socially conscious story where police organizations, including the Public Security Bureau, take action, and in the end, even the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office gets involved.
It was a profound suspense film where Takeharu Sakurai's style exploded again this year!

The culprit's motive is also one that hates the system of "plea bargaining." As I will mention later, I have the impression that many of the culprits in Sakurai's scripts have motives that hate systems or society.

It's a difficult story that you might get left behind if you're not careful, but thanks to Sakurai's script and Director Shigemura's careful direction, I think it turned out to be a work where "almost no '???' remains after watching it!"
(There were a lot of '???' after watching 'The Million-dollar Pentagram')

□ The coolness of police officers who "protect the country"

The police are very active this time!
Sato and Takagi go to Nagano with Kogoro, while Megure, Kuroda, Shiratori, and Chiba investigate at the Metropolitan Police Department. (I thought Superintendent Kuroda would have more screen time lol)
And of course, the Nagano Prefectural Police, who are the main focus, are super, super active!

The scene where they all work together to corner the culprit, Hayashi, was exciting, and it was also good that Megure and his team, as well as Amuro, who were far away, were also properly active.
And finally, the scene where they preach police professional ethics to Hayashi.
"Serve the nation and its people with pride and a sense of mission, do not be swayed by fear or hatred, and execute your duties fairly while respecting human rights in any situation!"That's such a cool line.
Thinking that Officer Kai, Wani, and Hiromitsu also gave their lives in accordance with this belief makes my eyes tear up.

□ The difference between Conan and the police/public security

In 'Zero the Enforcer', Rei Furuya and Conan's sense of justice clashed. In 'The Scarlet Bullet', he risked his life to protect the culprit from Akai's sniper shot.
The differences in justice and beliefs between each character have been depicted before.
So, how is that "Edogawa Conan" different from the others? I thought that was expressed very accurately in the C-part line by Komei.
He does not forgive those who commit crimes. But he protects lives without distinction between victims and culprits. And he doesn't want to make the people he cares about sad.
That is the Edogawa Conan that everyone loves, and that is why people gather around him.

□ How each character is used

Following 'Black Iron Submarine' and 'The Million-dollar Pentagram', this work also has a very large number of characters.
Despite that, the skill in handling each character is truly Sakurai-san!
'Black Iron' was a work that had unity because almost all the characters moved around "Ai Haibara." 'The Million-dollar Pentagram' is a work where you enjoy the festival-like atmosphere caused by the fact that each character's reason for acting is different.
And this work also leans towards each character's reason for acting being different. However, at the stage of cornering the culprit, Hayashi,It's really cool that everyone from the Metropolitan Police, Nagano Prefectural Police, Public Security, and the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office are in step!!!

In terms of details, I thought the way each character dispersed and joined up was skillful.
To allow Conan, who is a child, to naturally act with Kogoro and the Nagano Prefectural Police, they used the convenience of the number of people in the car, and Kazami took Conan in his car to the mountain villa, so they dispersed and joined up well, making it very easy to watch.
So, although it didn't have the festival feel like 'The Million-dollar Pentagram', I thought it made good use of the huge number of characters without the scenes becoming cluttered.

□ About the action scenes

It was a story with many difficult lines, typical of a Sakurai script, but I thought there was a device to keep even children from getting bored by inserting action scenes that were thrilling in moderation.
The battle between the culprit on a motorcycle and Conan at the beginning. The gunfights with the culprit inserted here and there, the avalanche caused by the culprit, and the intense car chase in the final battle.
And in the end, it's definitely Conan-kun and Kogoro! Compared to 'Black Iron' and 'The Million-dollar Pentagram', it's a bit less flashy, but it made me feel like I was "watching a Conan movie!" again this year.
However, if I were to state my personal preference, I thought it was a subject matter that could have been fully enjoyed even if the action scenes were limited to the beginning and the end, and the rest was filled with bitter lines from the Sakurai script...

□ Scenes that made me cry

There were two scenes that made me cry this time.

First, the scene where Haibara hears the words "Witness Protection Program" and has a flashback of Jodie-sensei.
From the audience's perspective, along with the memories of Jodie-sensei, I also remembered the late Miyuki Ichijo, who voiced her, and tears welled up...
And in the ED credits, along with the name of the late Yukihiro Shibuya, who served as art director for successive movies, the name of Miyuki Ichijo was listed in the "in memory of" section, and my tear ducts...

I still can't believe I can no longer hear Miyuki-san's Jodie-sensei.
And the scene where Komei sees a vision of Hiromitsu.
Komei, who fell into the river, goes from this shore to the other shore and meets Hiromitsu, who should have died.
My tear ducts collapsed at Hiromitsu smiling in a space with colors like a dream.
Komei, who immediately judges that it is not reality, fires his gun to return to this shore... My tear ducts collapsed at Komei regretting the parting with Hiromitsu, whom he was finally able to reunite with, saying "It's a pity."And the feeling of having an otaku's dream of "Hiromitsu faked his death and is actually alive!" come true for just a moment, and then immediately being pulled back to reality with "No, that's not the case." Being confronted again with the fact that Hiromitsu is dead, my tear ducts collapsed.

□ Remote Controls and Flashbacks

When I first saw the "missing remote control," I thought it was some kind of foreshadowing.
I even jumped to conclusions, wondering if Amuro had planted a wiretap...?
But when I thought about it carefully,it was likely a metaphor for "lost memories."When the call came from Wani, Kogoro didn't recognize the surname "Sameya." After Wani's death, he had even forgotten his hometown.

For Kogoro, Wani was a "lost memory" from the past. That's why, at this point, the remote control remained missing.
In the C-part, Kogoro remembers that Wani's hometown is Tottori, and he finds the commemorative photo from somewhere. When he reclaimed his memories of Wani, the missing remote control also turned up.

It's a bit subtle, but I thought it was an expression that linked the common daily occurrence of "losing the remote" with memories and recollections.

■ About Each Character

□ Conan Edogawa

He's cool again this year, but Conan-kun is just too calculating!!!
Whether it's the pose where he spreads his hands like a penguin, the way he fidgets when he needs to go to the bathroom, or the ribbon-tied scarf Ran gave him...This boy really knows how to use his weapons...!
At first, I thought those gestures were too calculating (for someone who is Shinichi on the inside)... but I realized this was probably meant to highlight the gap between "being so calculating and childish, yet still manipulating the Public Security Bureau with that tone of voice"!being so calculating and childish, yet still manipulating the Public Security Bureau with that tone of voiceKazami and Hayashi tried to use Conan by planting a wiretap, but he saw right through everything and used them instead...
the terror of the gap between "looks like a child, brain of an adult"was, I felt, further emphasized by his cutesy behavior.

□ Kogoro Mouri

Kogoro gets temporarily distraught when Wani is killed.
...That's right, actually, when someone important to Kogoro is in danger,his mental state is surprisingly fragile.
In 'The Time-Bombed Skyscraper,' when Ran was trapped in the Beika City Building, he was in a state of mental collapse and had to be stopped by Shiratori. In the anime-original 'The Yellow Alibi,' he acted strangely after the owner of a snack bar he frequented was murdered.

But when it really counts, the old man is truly cool.
He cares about his daughter Ran the most, of course, but he also cares about Conan in a different way. That's because, to him, Conan is "someone else's precious child entrusted to his care." I think that because he is a parent himself, he feels a strong sense of responsibility to take good care of other people's children.
I felt I saw that "conviction as a parent" in Kogoro during the scene where he prioritized protecting Conan from the avalanche.

If I had to ask for more,I wish they had put Kogoro in the main role even more.
From the middle, the Nagano Prefectural Police became the focus, and Kogoro felt a bit like background noise.
There were plenty of cool moments, like shielding Conan or desperately trying to save Inspector Yamato. But his only major contribution was the sniping...
As for the deduction, if it's a movie centered on Kogoro, I wanted to see him reach the truth on his own without Shinichi's help. If I had to ask for more, that is!

□ Ran Mouri

The part where she invites Shinichi to a soccer match,she's acting just like a girlfriend, and it makes me grin~~wBefore they started dating, it would have been Shinichi inviting her to soccer, or Ran inviting him to a movie (a romantic one at that).The fact that "Ran is the one inviting Shinichi to a soccer match" is only possible because they are dating!!!
When Ran says, "That deduction geek, saying he can't come because he's busy," and Conan thinks, "(I'm right here, you deduction geek)"...it makes me grin~~w

Not letting the soccer tickets go to waste also shows Ran's kindness and good character. Persuading Sonokoto gois, following the previous work,a great assist in love!

She also had a cool moment saving Genta and Mitsuhiko from the culprit with her signature karate, and showed her kindness by hugging them after they were scared...Really, Ran-neechan is the strongest.

□ Kansuke Yamato

Kan-chan, please value your own life more!!!!!!
Conan and Takaaki are characters who value things in the order of "1. Others' lives, 2. Their own lives" (I'll elaborate on this in the Takaaki Morofushi section).
But Kan-chan is definitely a "1. Others' lives, 2. None" kind of person. Yui called him a "suicidal person," and I think he's the reckless type who would throw his own life away to save someone or corner a culprit.

By the way, regarding the romance between Kansuke and Yui, I think Yui is aware of her feelings for Kansuke, but Kansuke is unaware of his feelings for Yui...
In the car, Kansuke says, "If I were you, I wouldn't have gone as far as marriage."Isn't this basically an answer already???
But looking at the interaction in the C-part, Kansuke is still unaware, isn't he? Or perhaps,could it be that Kansuke has extremely low self-esteem?????
Does he think, "There's no way Yui could like me"?
Does he think she's still in love with Officer Kai or her ex-husband?

Considering his low priority for his own life and his bashfulness in romance, my impression of Kansuke changes completely!

□ Yui Uehara

The scene where Yui's eyes well up at Hayashi's question is very memorable.
Perhaps she felt sympathy for the sadness Hayashi felt after losing someone important.
Hayashi turned that sadness into the wrong kind of motivation. Yui, too, didn't believe in Kansuke's survival and married someone other than the person she truly loved. Kansuke called Yui back from behind just as she was about to resonate with Hayashi's lament. The current Yui does not use sadness as the wrong kind of motivation. Unlike Hayashi, Yui, who has returned to being a detective, acts in accordance with the professional ethics of a police officer.

Come to think of it, Yui was originally planned to be the culprit in the "Wind, Forest, Fire, and Mountain" series.
I feel like one could interpret it as her catching a glimpse of "herself in a world line where she was the culprit" through Hayashi, tearing up, and being called back by Kansuke just as she was about to be pulled in by Hayashi, thus stopping herself...
(This is also symmetrical to Takaaki, whose life was saved by the illusion of Hiromitsu)

□ Takaaki Morofushi

The character whose impression changed the most after watching this film. I thought that Takaaki is someone who has a 'tenacity for life' on par with Conan.
Both Conan and Takaaki are people who can value their own lives only after the lives of others.

When Kansuke went missing in an avalanche ten months ago, Yui thought he was dead. Takaaki, on the other hand, 'believed in his life' and searched for him. As a result, he found him—he saved him.
When Kansuke was attacked by the culprit on the slope, he put himself in harm's way to save him. As a result, he ended up in mortal danger himself.
When their parents were slashed to death, it was also him who searched for Hiromitsu, who had survived and was hiding.
Kansuke was called a 'suicidal person' by Yui, but Takaaki is probably the opposite. His tenacity for life is incredible.
That is precisely why, after seeing the illusion of Hiromitsu, he was able to fire his gun to signal his location in order to return to the shore of the living. To survive. This is the same as Conan in 'Quarter of Silence,' who signaled his location to stay alive!

And the reason he knows Hiromitsu is not real is also,not by denying that 'Hiromitsu is actually alive,' but by using a logical reason: 'If he had heard the police radio and rushed over, he wouldn't be alone.' It is so like Takaaki to use a strictly logical reason. The fact that he doesn't deny Hiromitsu's death itself makes it all the more painful.

In the scene where he corners Hayashi as the culprit, when he quotes (?) Shinichi's 'If those guys find out you're alive, they'll target your life again, and it will harm the people around you...', the way he glanced at Conan was meaningful~.Could he have realized that Conan is Shinichi...? But there hasn't been any depiction of that until now, right...?

□ Hiromitsu Morofushi

Hiro drawn by Aoyama is just too good...!
The scene with Takaaki's illusion had a color palette I've never seen in any previous movie.

This is probably the first time Hikaru Midorikawa's Hiromitsu has interacted with Rikiya Koyama's Takaaki, right?
Perhaps because it was a surprise appearance, it's a shame that there are no comments from Hikaru Midorikawa in the pamphlet or Cine Magazine...!

□ Ai Haibara

Haibara, who was told by Ochi that she could become an 'excellent scientist.' She had a look that wasn't entirely displeased when Ran praised her, saying, 'That's amazing, Ai-chan!' For Haibara, who projected her sister onto Ran in 'The Two-Fold Mystery of the Full Moon Night' and 'Black Iron Submarine,' being 'praised by Ran' must be something quite special.
The scene where Haibara stares at the 'Bell of Happiness' and her indescribable back view were also great.

□ The Detective Boys

Genta did his job as a comedic relief, saying things like 'That looks tasty!' when he saw the snow (though I remember it vaguely) and asking Ran, 'Have you ever been to prison?', but on the other hand, seeing him bravely stand up to the culprit and seeing a cool Genta was also great!
In serious movies, the Detective Boys are often made to play the comedic relief, so they tend to be at a disadvantage in terms of impression compared to other characters, but the Detective Boys in this film were cool!

And Mitsuhiko, demonstrating the camera-wielding characterskills he showed in 'The Shadow Approaching Haibara's Secret' and 'The Corpse's Lamp,' was just like Saki-kun from 'The Kindaichi Case Files'!
Seeing Genta and Mitsuhiko trembling while being held by Ran after the culprit left, even though they've been in many dangerous situations, they are still first-graders...

□ Sonoko Suzuki, Makoto Kyogoku

The way these two appeared was a bit unexpected! (As for Makoto, I didn't even think he would appear lol)
In previous years, Sonoko is a character who supports from the shadows, like preparing tickets or taking care of the Detective Boys.
But this year, conversely, she was given soccer tickets by Ran.It was as if she was rewarding Sonoko for her efforts in previous years! Thank you as always, Sonoko-neechan!

□ Toru Amuro

Tsuyoshi Kusao's Toru Amuro has such an incredible presence...!
Perhaps because he was in a serious tone for most of the film, his sex appeal is off the charts!
And Rei Furuya in the C-part was too scary...

□ Yuya Kazami

The fact that he made Kogoro's firing of the gun 'never happen' must have been to clear the air regarding the grudge from when he framed him in 'Zero the Enforcer'.

Anyway, Kazami, please get some reward~~~!
Not only is he pushed around by his demon boss, but also by first-graders... No wonder he drinks so much coffee lol
Is there any chance he'll face Yoko Okino in a future original episode...?

□ Hyoe Kuroda, Wataru Takagi, Ninzaburo Shiratori, Kazunobu Chiba

This film was great because the police force, including the Nagano Prefectural Police, Sato, Takagi, and Public Security, were all so cool.
Even these supporting characters added a nice touch to the police suspense.
It might be rare for these people, including Sato and Takagi, to be credited with their full names, right?

Inspector Shiratori's scene where he gives instructions to Sato and Takagi as they head to Nagano and receives a salute from them was memorable. He was originally an annoying character who got in the way of their romance, but somehowit really showed that he is a proper 'superior'.It felt fresh to see Shiratori interacting with the two as their 'superior'.

□ Miwako Sato, Wataru Takagi

The two of them blushing when Kogoro introduces them as a 'couple' was cute lol
Even though they correct him saying 'That's old-fashioned,' they don't deny being a couple, do they lol

I thought, wait, haven't Sato and Takagi met Inspector Morofushi before during 'The Fairy's Lips'...? But it was carefully addressed in the novelization. As expected of Shima Mizuki!

It was moving to see Detective Sato explaining police professional ethics to Hayashi.
In 'The Shaking Metropolitan Police Department', Sato was about to fire at the culprit who killed Matsuda. Takagi stopped her just in time.I'm really glad that Sato, who once almost lost her way from the ethics of 'not being consumed by fear or hatred,' didn't lose her way and stayed on this side.

Isn't Detective Takagi too sweet this time!!!
Whether it's during the avalanche or when chasing Hayashi by car, the way he pulls Detective Sato close is just... It feels so 'manly'!!! You're cool, Takagi!!!

□ Rikuo Hasebe

Can you back-import him into the original manga? lol
With the presence of Tomokazu Seki, who voiced him, the character really stood out!
(According to Cine Magazine, Rikuo Hasebe is a germaphobe)

His title is Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office!!! The same position as Miyako Yashiro played by Yukie Nakama in 'Aibou'!!!
It's rare for the government to get involved in the Conan world, but since the secrets of the Ooka family were revealed in the original manga, it seems like the Cabinet and politicians might get involved in the future! If so, it's not impossible for Hasebe to appear in the original manga...?????

Come to think of it, when Hasebe arrived in Nagano and showed his face in front of Kogoro and the others, why did Conan hide under the table...?
Did he have a connection with Conan somewhere?

□ Atsunobu Hayashi

That's such a typical Sakurai-style motive~~~~~!
Personally, I have the impression that culprits in Kazunari Kouchi's scripts often have an 'obsession with something,' while culprits in Takahiro Okura's scripts often have an 'obsession with someone.'
The culprits depicted by Takeharu Sakurai often have 'anger toward the system' as their core. The same goes for Prosecutor Kusakabe, and Maiko Shirahato & Osamu Inoue.
Thanks to Wataru Hatano's passionate performance, I can sympathize with him a lot, but I can't deny the feeling of, 'Is that really who you should be holding a grudge against???'
Since the motives of the culprits in Sakurai's scripts are becoming quite similar, I kind of want to see the wacky culprits that were common in early Conan soon...

□ About other guest voice actors

Shunsuke Takeuchi as Sadakuni Mikuriya, Misato Fukuen as Maki Funakubo, and Michitaka Kobayashi as the taxi driver are all first-timers!

Takeuchi played an old man character much older than his actual age!
Did Fukuen only have about one line? That's a very luxurious use of her lol
Michitaka Kobayashi is too big of a name to use for a nameless mob character lol

■ About the music

□ Detective Conan Main Theme (Afterimage of the One-Eyed Version)

The piano is so stylish~~~!!!
And the arrangement that sandwiches the melody that corresponds to the ending part of the main theme at the beginning is also wonderful!!!

□ King Gnu 'TWILIGHT!!!'

King Gnu, who many had predicted due to the 'Nagano Prefecture' connection!
After Tokyo Incidents, BUMP OF CHICKEN, Spitz, and aiko, having King Gnu is like a massive music festival! lol It's incredible that Detective Conan can bring in such amazing artists every year.

The four acts—Masaharu Fukuyama, Tokyo Incidents, BUMP, and Spitz—all gave the impression of having written their songs specifically to match the scripts and characters of their respective films.
I felt that aiko's lyrics were an explosion of her 'happiness to be involved with Detective Conan and her love for Conan.'
This year's King Gnu, on the other hand, didn't feel like either of those; it felt more like they were coloring Japan's representative anime film with a classic J-POP sound.
The lyrics aren't meant to evoke any specific character, but are rather classic lyrics that can be interpreted quite broadly. They sampled the sound of the door closing used in the anime's eye-catch, so that's where I felt the Conan connection.
However, it was surprising that their approach was quite different from the artists of the past few years.